SAN ANTONIO — Georgia Tech center Luke Schenscher is fast approaching cult-hero status, and it’s not just because “there aren’t too many 7-foot red-headed guys walking around these days other than him and Bill Walton,” as Yellow Jackets guard Jarrett Jack said.
He also can play. Schenscher had 19 points and 12 rebounds in Georgia Tech’s 67-65 victory over Oklahoma State in Saturday’s national semifinal game. He averaged 8.9 points and shot 55.7 percent from the field during the season. In five tournament games, he is averaging 11.2 points (second on the team) and shooting 61.1 percent.
“Nothing in the game of basketball comes naturally to me,” said Schenscher, who weighed 215 pounds when he came to Georgia Tech and now is listed at 250. “Everything I’ve got, I’ve had to work on.”
A popular item on the Atlanta campus is a T-shirt sporting Schenscher’s likeness and the words “Luke Schenscher has a posse.” Yellow Jackets forward Anthony McHenry was wearing one during yesterday’s news conference.
“He’s a fan favorite, as you can tell,” Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said.
Schenscher, a 7-1 junior, comes from Hope Forest, Australia. He has the requisite accent that teammates try to mimic, along with a mop of red curls and an engaging personality. He once played against 7-6 Yao Ming in China.
“He was posting me up,” Schenscher said. “I had my forearm in his backside. I wasn’t used to that.”
Hewitt said Schenscher’s improvement this year mirrors better treatment from the officials. This happened after Hewitt pointed out a few things.
“I thought he was getting an unfair whistle,” Hewitt said. “For about two weeks I went on a rampage.”
Close calls
Georgia Tech’s two-point win over Oklahoma State and Connecticut’s 79-78 comeback victory over Duke tied the 1977 tournament for the tightest national semifinals ever.
That year, North Carolina beat UNLV by one point, and Marquette, the eventual champ, beat UNC Charlotte by two.
UConn coach Jim Calhoun said the close competition typified what’s right with college basketball despite criticism about players turning pro out of high school or leaving programs early.
“If you aren’t excited about college basketball, the competitiveness of four teams, then you’re never going to be excited about intercollegiate athletics,” he said.
“We’re playing for, in my opinion, the most difficult prize to win because it’s one and done. It’s [play a] bad 40 minutes and go home or a great 40 minutes and advance. The pot at the end of the rainbow is so special.”
Calling David Stern
Hewitt, a New Yorker and lifelong Knicks fan, decried the NBA as a league more of individuals than of teams, of shooters instead of passers.
“It used to be, growing up, the Knicks versus the Bullets, the Bucks versus the Celtics,” he said. “Now it’s Shaq versus Yao Ming. What’s that? That’s not basketball.
“The guys who saved the NBA, Bird and Magic, they did it with the pass. They didn’t do it with the shot. I think now … everybody thinks the NBA is about the shot now. We’re trying to go back to the ’70s when the game almost died.”
Injury update
Georgia Tech guard B.J. Elder continued to struggle with his sprained ankle Saturday, but Hewitt predicted his leading scorer “is going to play a big game” against UConn.
Also, reserve forward Isma’il Muhammad, who scored 22 points when Georgia Tech beat the Huskies in November, is suffering from “patella tendinitis,” Hewitt said. Muhammad underwent a precautionary MRI on Saturday, but Hewitt said doctors do not expect the injury to be serious.
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